Behavioral Immune Trade-Offs: Interpersonal Value Relaxes Social Pathogen Avoidance

Abstract

Behavioral-immune-system research has illuminated how people detect and avoid signs of infectious disease. But how do we regulate exposure to pathogens that produce no symptoms in their hosts? This research tested the proposition that estimates of interpersonal value are used for this task. The results of three studies ( N = 1,694), each conducted using U.S. samples, are consistent with this proposition: People are less averse to engaging in infection-risky acts not only with friends relative to foes but also with honest and agreeable strangers relative to dishonest and disagreeable ones. Further, a continuous measure of how much a person values a target covaries with comfort with infection-risky acts with that target, even within relationship categories. Findings indicate that social prophylactic motivations arise not only from cues to infectiousness but also from interpersonal value. Consequently, pathogen transmission within social networks might be exacerbated by relaxed contamination aversions with highly valued social partners.

What Role Does Pathogen-Avoidance Psychology Play in Pandemics?

“…Although the behavioral immune system outputs motivations to avoid infection-risky social contact, it relaxes such motivations during some contact rituals (e.g., handshakes) [ 61 ] and with targets of high interpersonal value, such as family, friends, and romantic partners [ 62 ]. Such targets are as likely to carry infections as strangers, yet people embrace the type of contact with close others that would be aversive with less valued others.…”

Using psychological science to support social distancing: Tradeoffs between affiliation and disease‐avoidance motivations

“…Individuals reporting dispositionally heightened need to belong, in addition to those experiencing exclusion, prefer extraverts, whose outgoing and sociable nature makes them ideal new friends despite increased infection risk (Brown, Medlin, et al., 2019; Brown & Sacco, 2017; Brown, Sacco, & Medlin, 2019). Recent evidence has also found a heightened willingness to affiliate with agreeable and honest individuals even when disease risk is high (Tybur et al., 2020). Related research finds social rejection heightens willingness to interact with individuals with highly asymmetrical faces (Sacco et al., 2014), when pathogenic concern would otherwise heighten aversion to facial asymmetry (Brown & Sacco, in press; Young et al., 2011).…”

Evolutionary psychology in marketing: Deep, debated, but fancier with fieldwork

“…Indeed, fundamental human motives linked to survival and reproduction and situational or hormonal states linked such motivating forces (e.g., fear, self‐protection, mate attraction, fertility) have previously been shown to exert downstream effects on loss aversion and risk taking, while also influencing the effectiveness of different framing tactics and persuasion techniques (Dreber et al, 2013; Durante et al, 2020; Griskevicius et al, 2009; Y. J. Li et al, 2012; Ronay & Hippel, 2010; Saad & Gill, 2014; X. T. Wang, 2008). Taking such findings into consideration when designing segment‐specific message strategies may therefore decrease the spread of infectious diseases and may become even more powerful tools in the fight against the present pandemic if combined with evolutionary‐informed theorizing related to pathogen avoidance and the behavioral immune system (Makhanova & Shepherd, 2020; Schaller & Park, 2011; Tybur et al, 2011; Tybur et al, 2020; van Leeuwen & Petersen, 2018) as well as the evolved function and structure of disgust (Haidt et al, 1994; Rozin & Fallon, 1987; Rozin & Haidt, 2013; Tybur et al, 2009; Tybur et al, 2013). Despite the debated role of evolutionary thinking, deep‐rooted EP‐based interventions that increase survival rates and improve public health will most certainly decrease the criticism from Darwinian deniers, as the relevance of such metrics is difficult to righteously reject.…”

“…T. Wang, 2008). Taking such findings into consideration when designing segment-specific message strategies may therefore decrease the spread of infectious diseases and may become even more powerful tools in the fight against the present pandemic if combined with evolutionary-informed theorizing related to pathogen avoidance and the behavioral immune system (Makhanova & Shepherd, 2020;Schaller & Park, 2011;Tybur et al, 2011;Tybur et al, 2020;van Leeuwen & Petersen, 2018) as well as the evolved function and structure of disgust (Haidt et al, 1994;Rozin & Fallon, 1987;Rozin & Haidt, 2013;Tybur et al, 2009;Tybur et al, 2013). Despite the debated role of evolutionary thinking, deep-rooted EP-based interventions that increase survival rates and improve public health will most certainly decrease the criticism from Darwinian deniers, as the relevance of such metrics is difficult to righteously reject.…”